Dry Falls, located in Grant County, Washington, at one time was believed to be the largest waterfall that ever existed. Geologists believe that during the last ice age, ice dams resulted in giant glacial lakes in eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana. When those dams failed, as they did dozens of times, glacial lakes Columbia and Missoula rapidly drained, creating a cataclysmic flood. During the floods, what is now Dry Falls was a spectacular waterfall, 400 feet high (121 meters), 3.5 miles wide (5.63 kilometers). Water may have raced over its massive cliffs at 65 miles an hour (105 km/hour), a flow that's estimated to be ten times as powerful as all the world's current rivers combined. The cliffs shown here represent a small fraction of the ice age waterfall. Dry Falls Lake is pictured in the foreground; Green Lake is visible in the background.
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